newnative

And, average USA household net worth was $1,059,470 in 2023, up from $746,821 in 2020. Sounds about right.

Western restaurant food doesn't need to be 'very expensive'; you just need to look around a bit and try new places. Spouse and I have a favorite restaurant here on the Darkside of Pattaya. One of the meals we like is a chicken breast entree with choice of sauces and it comes with french fries, a slice of garlic bread, and a small salad for 100 baht. Delicious. Wonder what you can get for 100 baht at a restaurant in the US these days. Another restaurant we like near us with western menu choices has a very good large-size ham and cheese pizza for 245 baht. We usually split the pizza and a salad costing 125 baht--the portions are quite large with this restaurant. If we're not stuffed we'll have dessert--large selection of cakes, pies, etc. Fuji has a good lunch deal with meals coming with your choice of drink and a small dessert. We like the teriyaki chicken, which comes with soup, rice, and a couple little other things, I think one is sometimes tofu, which I usually give to my spouse. Good value at 175 baht. We find new restaurants opening all the time in Pattaya. We recently discovered a new Chinese restaurant at T21, near Fuji. Tasty dishes, at very reasonable prices. I never knew eggplant could be so delicious--but it definitely is there, in several different dishes we have tried so far. We're looking forward to trying some of their other dishes. Last two times we were there we were given free ice cream for dessert. Good restaurant food at reasonable prices is out there. You just need to do some exploring--which can be a lot of fun.

Thailand is great value for the money--especially with what is usually your biggest ticket item--keeping a roof over your head. Whether you buy or rent, there is a huge variety of housing stock at all price points if you choose somewhere like Pattaya. I know--because in the 14 years I have been here with my Thai spouse, we have lived in everything from studio condos to our current 4-bedroom pool villa. Whatever your housing needs, it's likely available with numerous choices--we saw that firsthand as our housing needs changed as we got older. Could we afford a 4-bedroom with pool in America? Maybe in a stretch--but we'd be eaten alive by high property taxes, HOA fees, high costs to get someone to repair anything, higher utilities, and likely sky high insurance rates these days. Just a couple examples. We pay 40 baht a month for garbage pickup, twice a week. What's that cost these days in the US? The pool guy cleans and maintains our pool three times a week for 1500 baht a month, not counting supplies. What's a pool guy run for in the US? Of course, lots of other things are also cheaper, including health care and eating out at restaurants--which we love to do. Certainly there are other reasonably priced countries to choose from but we like being in Asia.

'Singular correct answer'? That's rich. And, where exactly did I tell you 'there was no cheating, no smurfing, no ballot irregularities'? Every Presidential election has some irregularities. It's a given when you are dealing with millions of voters and ballots. Did the number of irregularities effect the outcome in 2020? No--and I'm not the only one who believes this. A strong case could be made that Florida election irregularities did cost Gore the election in 2000. If anyone has an election beef, it's Gore, not Trump. That was a very close election, with Florida, and all its election problems, the deciding state. Not the case with 2020. Biden won by 7 million votes. A landslide. That Trump could even suggest that he won with his Big Lie is ludicrous. Somewhere, on one of the innermost rings of Hell, Hitler and Goebbels are having a good laugh.

Those stats leave me sad. Sad that the Big Lie theory, used so effectively by Nazi Germany, is still very effective as a propaganda tool. Tell a Big Lie often enough, and loud enough, and a percentage of the population will eventually believe the Big Lie, no matter what it is, no matter how preposterous. Trump has the notoriety to both tell the Big Lie very often, but, more importantly, very loudly in the way of wide publicity. Trump did exactly that in 2020, beginning even before the election was held, and he's doing the same thing in 2024. Sad that, with those percentage numbers, the Big Lie worked in 2020 and likely will work to some degree in 2024, as well, should he lose. If he wins, of course, never mind!--everything was hunky dory with the election. Sad that's the state of things in my country.

Scaredy cat.

They do look like poster boys for Trump. Trump, himself, can get some idea of how he will look in prison orange by taking a gander at the one on the right.

They could have picked a better example than the first guy, David. He only just arrived in Thailand this year--so his pension has hardly even been frozen yet. He knows going in his pension will not increase year after year if he chooses to live here. It's his decision. I do agree it's not fair to have some countries frozen and others not--that makes no sense at all. Either do all countries or none.

Dusting off The Big Lie, 2024 edition. Hard to believe so many people are such idiots to believe his ridiculous lies.

Biden and Harris need to get on the stick and mount a massive Federal response to the storm. So far I'm not seeing much of that--but, perhaps its not being reported. They need to be seen to be on top of things and totally engaged in making things better, and as quickly as possible. How many politicians have been voted out of office or were severely criticized because they went on vacation when a storm hit, didn't clear the roads fast enough after a snow storm, didn't respond fast enough, or were perceived to be not acting fast enough, after a disaster? So close to the election, this is really important for the Democrats, They are in charge of the clean-up, not Trump. They will be blamed if the effort falls short, or even if it is thought by some to have fallen short, not Trump. Trump can make hay with this--and likely will. My brother and his wife live in North Carolina and things have been bad for several days now. The interstates have been closed, there's no electricity, and there's a lot of storm damage. For now, they are living in their motor home, rather than their house, as they can sparingly use some sort of generator with the motor home. The first day or two of a disaster there's a can-do spirit in play but that grows old quickly when you go day after day with no electricity, roads are still blocked, food starts to go bad, etc. Day three or four, you start to look around for someone to blame. Like I said, get on the stick, Biden and Harris. Time's a'-wastin'.

And, when it finally ends up killing you, after giving you '5 or 6' warnings, it will also be your fault. Back to the topic, all stray dogs need to be rounded up and put down.

Total fraud. How could anyone respect somebody who compares Trump to Hitler, calls Trump an 'idiot' and 'reprehensible', and then turns around and goes to work for him. Talk about reprehensible behavior. Total fraud. Also reprehensible, passing himself off as growing up in a life of poverty and deprivation, when, in reality, his family was middle class. At times, the family had a six-figure income. What kind of a 'poor' child gets to take golf lessons, for heaven's sake? When he proclaims, "I grew up poor.", it's a complete lie. Total fraud. His ability to tell bald-faced lies, and not just about himself, with, apparently, no moral compass, does put him in good stead with his Hitler wannabe Trump. It also explains why Trump picked him. Two lying birds of a feather. Super scary if Dead Man Walking 78 year-old Trump gets elected and this lying total fraud is a heart beat away from the presidency.

Buying a condo--anywhere--is usually a big investment--at least it is for me. As others have said, you should have done better checking of this project before you purchased. That would include checking the AGM meeting minutes, checking the financials, checking the swimming pool and gym, checking the general condition of the project, making trips to the project both in the daytime and at night, and interviewing some residents, if possible. Doing these things should have alerted you, at the minimum, to the impending rise in condo fees, the parking problem, and the fee to use the gym. I certainly would not pay the delinquent fees the previous owner owed and I would let the Juristic know that they made an error in producing the debt-free letter when the condo was not debt-free. Show your closing paperwork indicating the date when you took possession of the condo and let it be known that you will only be paying condo fees from that date forward. Don't be afraid to make a stink--either with the juristic, with the condo board, or, if necessary, at the next AGM. Or, all of them, if necessary. The rise in condo fees is not necessarily a bad thing. Many older projects have condo fees that are way too low to properly maintain the project. Either fees are raised or the project slides downhill. At the last older condo project I owned at, the condo fee was too low to maintain the project in the style the residents were accustomed to. Rather than raise the condo fee, which I think was 40 baht/sqm, there was a special assessment each year I owned there to cover the shortfall. The shortfall special assessment added to the regular condo fee translated to a total condo fee of around 60 baht/sqm., depending on that year's special assessment amount. I was happy to pay the special assessment because the condo was a big investment for me and I wanted to protect my investment.

After his first term Trump was named the worst president in US history. Let's not have a second term.

I registered on-line and got the voting materials emailed to me but I am required to mail in my ballot, which I have ready to go. It would be great if all states allowed voting by email, without having to actually go to the post office and mail in a paper ballot. My state makes registering and voting needlessly complex, in my opinion. My first registration by email was rejected. They required my last address where I lived and I was able to come up with the street address but I neglected to include my unit number, which I couldn't remember as I had moved so many times with condo flips. So, rejected; I had to research what the last condo number had been and submit the registration again. Accepted this time. Voting is also more complex than it needs to be with my state. There are numerous steps involved, from printing the ballot to filling it out to putting it in an envelope to printing a voter statement to fill out and sign to pasting the voter statement to the envelope to sealing the envelope to putting that envelope into another envelope to printing the voter address to send the second envelope to pasting the voter address to the second envelope to sealing the second envelope to--finally--mailing it. Phew!

For a used car in that price range, I would look for something from Toyota or Honda, with Toyota being my first choice.

As I said in an earlier post, my spouse and I have a Sealion on order, which is about the same size as our current CR-V. We will likely buy the top model, costing 1,039,000 baht. BYD is giving us 600,000 baht for our 2018 Honda CR-V. The car cost us 1.5MB new so driving it for 6 years has cost us 900,000 baht in depreciation. If we also drive the Sealion for 6 years and, worst case, it loses 100% of its value, it will have cost us 1,039,000 baht in depreciation. Not much difference between 900,000 and 1,039,000 baht--and we might save the difference in reduced fuel costs. We know going in that depreciation with the Sealion will most likely be a good deal worse than if we bought another, more expensive, Honda CR-V. But, I very much doubt that the Sealion will have zero value in 6 years. We will have also saved from the get-go by spending 1.039MB for the Sealion vs. spending 1.7MB for the CR-V model we might have purchased if it looked newer and had a PHEV model.

And, if you're a Republican, you should be thrilled with that. Republicans for years have been pushing the 'trickle down' theory to support their tax cuts that mostly benefit the rich. When the rich get richer, the benefits will trickle down to the rest of us, according to the theory So, if the rich are, indeed, 'doing great under Biden', if 'trickle down' actually works, then millions of regular voters, Democrats and Republicans, should be doing great, too, with all that money trickling down to them, and they should be rewarding the Democrat ticket in the November election with their votes. Umm. Hang on. Maybe the Republicans shouldn't be too thrilled . . .

I can't speak to European pension fund performance but my USA stock portfolio, with mostly American stocks, has been doing great under Biden/Harris. This year it is up $25,000, 12.82%, and recently has been hitting all-time highs. For the past two years, it's up $51,000, 29.94%. I started my stock portfolio in 2021, with money inherited from a family trust. I don't know how it would have fared under Trump but I'm happy with what Biden/Harris has delivered.

We have at least 6 or 8 stray dogs in our housing project. Nobody owns them. A Thai lady who does not even live in the project sometimes comes and feeds them--which we have repeatedly asked her not to do. Unfortunately, it is a new project with no gate security so she can just walk right in. Spouse called the local municipality and asked that the dogs be removed. Instead, they sent somebody to round up the dogs and I think they were neutered and then brought back to the project. Spouse argued to them that nobody owns the dogs and the project does not want the dogs back--to no avail. Back they came. Back they still are. Madness.

Bravo! You hit it! Thanks.

I'm seeing lots of new recruits for the Just Can't Quit Pattaya Fan Club, including the usual number who haven't been to Pattaya anytime recently, yet are still compelled to spend their time reading about and commenting on a city they neither visit or live in. Welcome to the club, you!

Good, short, accurate description of Trump--loser with no redeeming values. Especially loser--twice with the actual voters in two presidential elections. Loser by 2.8 MILLION votes in 2016. Loser by 7 MILLION votes in 2020. LOSER TWICE OVER. And, likely a loser for the THIRD time with the actual voters in 2024.

Vows to eradicate poverty as she enters a grand mansion. Any disconnect there?

Not my take, but I respect your viewpoint. I think she mostly did 'give a toss'--but not every waking minute of every day of the 19 years of her show. So, cancel her. Also not buying Markle being a horrible tyrant, either. I think both are victims of some 'underlings', frankly, not really knowing their place in the workplace hierarchy--and seizing on, and likely blowing up, a few instances of perhaps poor behavior to 'get at' the boss. I do wonder if reprimanding an employee is now considered poor behavior by a boss, who is not being 'kind' and 'loving'. Maybe only if they are female and named Markle. Or, a certain magazine editor wearing Prada. We're seeing the same thing with Harris--some stories of staff turnover. She must be the dreaded 'difficult to work with'. Can't have that, at least not in a woman. Note: If an 'underling is reduced to tears', likely they are the wrong person for a demanding, high-pressure job and should look for something more suitable to their delicate temperament. Perhaps teaching flower arranging. These days, with social media so pervasive, a few negative stories, true or not, can easily leave a false, unfair impression. I think that is mostly the case with both women, with some envy and jealousy thrown in for good measure. I re-read some of the Ellen workplace stories and found myself thinking, what's the big deal. Pretty thin, watery gruel to feast on considering 19 years of workplace behavior involving hundreds of workers to dissect and find fault with. The sole possibly serious charge I noticed involved alleged sexual harassment or other questionable behavior by three male producers, who were fired. People are human, they aren't perfect. If a celebrity chooses to use their public position to try to both promote and to try to be kind, compassionate, etc., I don't think it's hypocrisy if they aren't always successful in practicing what they preach. And, it is certainly not hypocrisy, in my book, to believe and promote love, joy, etc., as important things to strive for in general, but also be focused, in the workplace as a boss running a business, on other important things--like keeping the business afloat. Ellen did that for 19 years, keeping her show at or near the top of the ratings, not an easy thing by any means. And, at the same time, keeping her workers employed, including, it seems, some rather resentful, ungrateful ones.